Today I received a very pleasant surprise: this blog has been nominated as a finalist for Research Blog of the Year! This is the highest award of a new series of awards based on ResearchBlogging.org and sponsored by Seed Media Group. My blog is one of ten finalists that were picked by an expert panel of judges from a set of some 400 that were nominated.

I don't think it really hit me right away how much this means to me, and how much I appreciate being chosen as a finalist. This blog really started, like many do, as a hobby that I never necessarily thought would garner much attention, and it is really great to get such an affirmation that I'm doing something right!

The final choice for "blog of the year" will be made by the community of research bloggers, namely those who are registered and blog through ResearchBlogging.org. From the announcement:

Voting for the winners will be conducted by invitation to bloggers registered with ResearchBlogging.org. Invitations will be sent on Thursday, March 4. If you're registered with us, you may want to check your account to make sure your email address is up-to-date. If you're not registered (and you blog about peer-reviewed research), you still have time to register so you can vote. Visit this page for more information.

I don't really expect to win -- I'm up against some really stunningly awesome competition -- but if you're a research blogger, I hope you'll consider throwing me a vote!

In any case, I've always heard that "It's an honor just to be nominated," and now that I'm in that position I can really say that it's true! (I should also say "thank you" to the person or persons who put my blog up for the awards in the first place.) I'm also delighted that I get to put this badge on my blog:

Speaking of research blogging, I really need to get back to some -- my impending book deadline has been eating up all my non-work time recently! I do have a post on the Talbot effect that I'll hopefully put up in a few days; it took me almost a month to decide how to explain the effect with a minimum of mathematics!

Update: For those stopping by from the "finalist" page, to see some of my research blogging please check out my "physics", "optics", and "history of science" categories! As I noted above, my blog has been a little quiet lately due to numerous deadlines.